Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 18:56:12 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199706172256.SAA29404@freenet5.carleton.ca.carleton.ca>
From: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca (Rick Scaia)
To: nfd@aimnet.com
Subject: The News From Dayton -- 06/16/97
Reply-To: ag725@freenet.carleton.ca
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THE NEWS FROM DAYTON
For the week of June 16, 1997
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Real Life Brawls / Real Life Accident / Real Cheap Win for Savage
Read on for more on today's Headline Stories!
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The News From Dayton is compiled weekly by:
Rick Scaia
(ag725@freenet.carleton.ca)
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The News -- For the Week of June 16, 1997
The News From Dayton, as always, remains a combination of the weekly Dayton
Daily News pro wrestling column, penned by Alex Marvez, and other pieces of
information I feel are unique and worth passing on to you, the Home Viewer.
If you are reading the NFD on one of the RSPW newsgroups, or anywhere on
the web other than the revamped News From Dayton Web Site, or if you are
linking directly here without checking out the main News From Dayton
Headlines Page, I strongly encourage you to make the jump to the NFD on the
web at http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/wrestling/nfd.htm
I think you'll find the trip worthwhile, as there are many exclusive
features to the NFD Web Site, along with updates on breaking news, so that
you don't have to wait a full week for the NFD's take on the latest rumors.
THE ALEX MARVEZ COLUMN
* Alex leads off his column with recaps of the two "real life" brawls
that occured last Monday night at the respective venues of WWF RAW and
WCW Nitro.
The bigger of the two incidents was the fistfight between Shawn
Michaels and Bret Hart before RAW. Their real life hatred (or in
Alex's own words, the two "legitimately despise each other") resulted
in words escalating into a brief fight. Both left the building after
the incident, forcing the WWF to make last second changes to the RAW
is WAR telecast.
Michaels was expected to fill in for the injured Steve Austin (who
aggrevated a knee injury at the KotR PPV) in a match against Brian
Pillman. Instead, a lackluster Mankind vs. Pillman match was offered
up as the RAW main event. And Bret Hart was scheduled to do an in-ring
interview to set-up next month's "Canadian Stampede" PPV main event
(which is a 10 man tag match); with Hart gone, the WWF had to plug in
a Rock-a-Billy vs. Bart Gunn match.
Like the rest of us, Alex is uncertain where all this leaves Shawn
Michaels and the WWF. He left merely reporting that while Michaels
would like to leave for WCW to join his Clique friends, there are
still four years left on his WWF contract. Truly, this is a "time will
tell" situation.
* Meanwhile, Kevin Nash was furious with Roddy Piper after the two had
fought in the main event of last week's WCW Nitro. Nash was upset that
Piper was doing such a poor job of selling for him in recent months.
When confronted with this accusation, Piper didn't back down; this
lead to heated words and a bit of a shoving match.
Alex speculated that this real life tension might be enough to bring
about a mild shoot in the Bash PPV main event (nothing of the sort
appeared to occur), but says the PPV should be the last time the two
ever have to be on opposite sides of the ring, as Piper and Flair
would soon be feuding against each other.
* Kevin Greene has been a hold-out from Carolina Panthers mini-camp,
which allowed him the opportunity to tape an attack on Steve McMichael
at a WCW TV taping last Wednesday. Greene is reportedly planning to
play only one more year of football before wrestling full-time for
WCW. On a side-not, Alex says that representatives of FOX football
announcer Howie Long have contacted WCW expressing interest in booking
a match.
* More tidbits regarding the June 2 Nitro that was held right here in
Dayton, OH... the Ric Flair vs. Scott Hall main event was scheduled to
last 10 minutes longer than it actually did. Flair called for an early
finish because he was too winded. The 48-year-old wrestler is still
getting back into ring shape after a 7-month hiatus due to a shoulder
injury.
* Finally, despite the fact that Eric Bischoff himself stated that WCW
still did not have a deal finalized with Scott "Raven" Levy as of last
Thursday night, Marvez reports that a three-year deal worth $775,000
was inked last week. Levy should be debuting on an upcoming Nitro,
sayeth Alex.
* Alex Marvez's column appears every Sunday in the Dayton Daily News. In
addition to sharing his wrestling thoughts there, Alex is also once
again lurking about the America OnLine Grandstand Wrestling Area, and
can be e-mailed with questions at "alex_marvez@coxohio.com". Also,
Alex can also be heard on Mondays and Fridays on WING-FM (102.9) at
7:20 a.m. talking about wrestling and other sports.
IN OTHER NEWS...
* Last night, WCW held their annual Great American Bash PPV... I was
lucky enough to have a tape of the event waiting for me, after I spent
the weekend in Chicago, and then spent all of Sunday evening at my
parents' home celebrating Fathers' Day. And even though I had to watch
the show by myself (which is never as much fun as watching a show with
a room full of rabid fans), I still thought that on the whole, WCW did
a good job of delivering an entertaining show out of what looked like
a pretty lame line-up.
No single match really stood out as spectacularly well-worked, nor
were there any major booking surprises. On top of that, I'm generally
not all that interested in WCW characters/performers. But the show
also had all the crap relegated into one stretch, so you could zone it
out and concentrate on the good stuff. Plus, instead of the usual
really poor main event, this show built to a Randy Savage vs. Dallas
Page match that was actually worthy of being the climax to a
three-hour long event. The overall even feel of the show made for an
entertaining experience... here's how it all went down:
o Two quick observations: first, the crowd seemed really dead to
me. For the first 6 matches of the card, I don't think they were
even awake. They didn't respond to cool moves, nor did they seem
to respond to much of the typical heel/babyface schtick. And
second, the announcing was pretty poor, I thought; Dusty Rhodes
once again showed why I get nervous twitches whenever I hear the
WWF mention him in a favorable manner.
o Ultimo Dragon beat Psicosis with the "Dragon Sleeper" submission.
This was a match that was good, but not nearly what I would have
liked to see out of these two.
o Harlem Heat beat the Steiners by DQ when the NWO's Vincent
interfered. On TV, they played this off as the NWO trying to pick
and choose who they face. In reality, this was a really poor
match between one team that I really used to enjoy but have come
to expect the worst of (the Steiners) and one team that I used to
dislike but have come to enjoy (Heat). The Steiners lived down to
recent expectations, while the Heat didn't really do much to try
to liven things up.
o Konan defeated Hugh Morrus. This was another poor match,
especially considering that these two could have a decent contest
if they really wanted to. Instead, they sleepwalked through it,
even blowing the final spot pretty badly. Morrus was supposed to
go up for the moonsault and get caught by Konan. But Konan stayed
on the ground for several seconds, then acted like he was getting
up, and then laid back down. The whole while, Morrus was standing
on the top rope doing nothing. Finally, Konan did get up and grab
Morrus to drop him face first on the turnbuckle. After cinching
in a submission hold, Konan was declared the winner.
o Glacier got a win over Wrath in another pretty sub-par match.
Wrath actually did have a really cool move, as he did a
sommersault senton from the apron to the floor; while it looked
impressive, it got no crowd reaction. After this match went way
longer than it should have, the storyline finally kicked in, as
Glacier intercepted a chain tossed in by Mortis (who was
handcuffed at ringside to prevent interference), and used it
against Wrath while James Vandenburg was distracting the ref and
trying to get his hands on the keys to the cuffs. The cameraman
actually missed the finish of the match, as they were too busy
showing the ref get the key stolen to show us Glacier hit his
superkick and get the three count. After the match, Mortis was
released, and he and Wrath did a two-on-one attack against
Glacier. Yippee.
o Things got back on track nicely, as Akira Hokuto and Madusa
stepped things up and had a pretty good match. Not a lot in terms
of highspots, but there was a nice build-up to the finish and
good drama. Sonny Onoo ruined Madusa's attempt at her German
Suplex finisher, which opened the door for Hokuto to come back
and score a somewhat surprising victory. As per the matches
stipulations, Madusa now can't wrestle in WCW anymore. There were
hints on commentary that Madusa was actually seriously persuing a
boxing career, so this might be how WCW is "writing her out" for
a while; or maybe we'll just see a new large-breasted masked
female wrestling sensation called the Yellow Dog debut on Nitro
in coming weeks. I don't know. I don't think I care, either.
o Meng and Chris Benoit next reprised their "death match" from the
last PPV. While this was still far from a convincing "death
match," this was still a MAJOR step up in match quality from last
time. Benoit was really clicking, as he started with an awesome
flurry and looked great any time he was on offense. Meng is not
quite as talented, but all his offense at least hits hard enough
to be convincing. This time, Meng returns the favor to Benoit by
submitting to some sort of a crossface; this is still far too
tepid an ending to something that is billed as a "death match."
Both men left the ring on stretchers, which despite this being a
pretty long and entertaining match, seemed to be a bit of
overkill to get the non-existant "death match" stipulation over.
o In the suprise of the night, Kevin Greene and Mongo McMichael had
a very watchable match. Instead of last month's McMichael/Reggie
White match, which was very obviously two football players
play-pretending to be pro wrestlers, this contest came off very
well -- it actually looked like two pro wrestlers going about
their usual business. Greene is really good, considering this is
just his third time wrestling; and with an opponent not as
clueless as White, Mongo could do a better job of making sure he
didn't look like a clueless oaf. This match seemed to go pretty
long (like 15-plus minutes), which was also surprising. Despite
the pleasantly surprising action during the match, the finish was
the same-old disappointing screwjob crap we've come to get used
to with the never-ending Mongo/Jeff Jarrett angle. Jarrett came
down and accidently hit Mongo with the Haliburton, which gave
Greene the easy three count. This actually marked our entrance
into the screwjob zone...
o Last Monday's Nitro main event was reprised next, as Scott Hall
and Kevin Nash got a win over the duo of Ric Flair and Roddy
Piper. This was just about what you'd expect out of this
foursome, which is competent though unspectacular ring work. Even
though I was entertained by the antics during this match, I'm
hardpressed to come up with even one vivid memory of it other
than Flair leaving the apron to brawl back to the dressing room
with Syxx. This left Piper all alone to fight the Outsiders, and
of course, he lost after this arrangment continued long enough.
Obviously, this is the set-up for the Piper/Flair split, though
it offered no real clues as to who would be the heel and who
would be the face.
o Randy Savage and Dallas Page closed out the PPV in a "Lights Out"
match that was also remarkable for the fact that both Liz and
Kimerly looked great in their roles as window dressing. The
"Lights Out" gimmick meant that basically anything goes and falls
count anywhere... and while there was some into-the-crowd
brawling and action in other parts of the building, I can't
really say that the "realistic violence" aspect of the match ever
really took off; ECW and the WWF still have it all over WCW in
terms of crazy brawling that looks like it really hurts. Instead,
the Lights Out gimmick made for some really interesting drama and
booking. Savage and Page kept the action moving nicely, as they
transitioned between wrestling in the ring to brawling outside to
doing mini-angles within the match. Several such angles involed
three different referees having to be used, as Savage would
assault refs at random. Finally Nick Patrick came out, and I
think he was the final referee of record. The end came with all
three refs out; Scott Hall ran in to deliver a Razor's Edge,
which opened the door for Savage to do the top rope elbow drop. A
ref recovered enough to count three, as Savage stole the win. I
think I'd call this the best match of the night, as it had main
event drama, some good action and booking, and actually had some
heat from the crowd.
Not a bad show at all... like most PPVs these days, it also gets the
added disclaimer that it was "OK, but nothing special." And that
disclaimer usually gets translated as "If this is what they served up
every Monday night, I'd be happy." I think that label fits pretty well
in the case of the GAB.
* The WWF -- which has taken several very serious blows as a result of
untimely injuries to top stars dating back to last summer, when IC
Champ Ahmed Johnson was sidelined with a lacerated kidney -- may have
taken another such blow over the weekend. En route to an event in
Ottawa, WWF stars Psycho Sid, Flash Funk, Phil LaFon, and Doug
Furnas were involved in a serious car accident. The accident caused a
30 minute delay at the Corel Centre show, as WWF officials tried to
restructure the show to take place without the four men.
Sid was driving the rented car, which is said to have flipped over and
landed in a ditch. While what caused the accident is unknown,
Prodigy's Bob Ryder reports that the vehicle was travelling at a high
rate of speed at the time of the one-car crash. All four were taken to
the hospital, where they stayed overnight. However, they suffered
varying degrees of injury, according to a reporting in an Ottawa
newspaper.
Most reports have LaFon as the worst injured of the foursome, as he
broke a shoulderblade and took a blow to the head. On the flip side,
Funk was said to be merely "shaken up." The actual extent of the
injuries and what it means for the four wrestlers is not known for
certain at this time. It would seem likely that Furnas and LaFon will
be forced out of the loop for some time, as LaFon's injury heels; but
how long Funk and Sid will be out for is unknown.
* The long-awaited WWF/ECW/USWA interpromotional feud appears to have
kicked into high gear. ECW was a major presence on WWF RAW last week,
as Tommy Dreamer jumped the railing to attack Jerry Lawler and Rob Van
Dam on the live telecast. On ECW television this past weekend, the
whole extended incident where Jerry Lawler, Van Dam, and Sabu wreaked
havoc was broadcast. And Saturday in Memphis, the USWA was the
battleground for the next chapter in the war.
Saturday morning, during the live USWA broadcast in Memphis (shown in
syndication in many markets a week later), Tommy Dreamer showed up and
crashed the program. He assaulted a number of USWA officials and did
damage to the USWA set while verbally lacing into USWA and Jerry
Lawler. This was done to hype the match later that evening between
Dreamer and Lawler at the Big One Expo Center; about 400 showed up to
witness the event. Dreamer and Lawler went to a no-decision, as the duo
brawled wildly for awhile before Dreamer again got too extreme for
Memphis and started attacking USWA officials.
It's expected that Dreamer and Lawler will duel again at the July ECW
Arena show.
In the meantime, the WWF portion of the angle will pick up, as Sabu
will be introduced on RAW either tonight or next week as Van Dam's
partner. Shortly thereafter, the Sandman will be introduced on RAW as
an associate of Tommy Dreamer's; this will set up a Van Dam/Sabu vs.
Dreamer/Sandman tag match at SummerSlam. Jerry Lawler is expected to
repay the favor by appearing on ECW's PPV later in August.
* By the way, this past weekend's ECW television program was probably
the single best hour of free wrestling so far this year. The show was
packed, as it included a quick tease of the Eliminators unfortunate
situation (due to Saturn's legit knee injury) to start things off. And
then it was to the ring for the "Final Battle" between Tommy Dreamer
and Raven; this was a super brawl that included both men bleeding, a
lot of drama (which was hard, since everybody knew that Raven had to
lose), and tons of action. Dreamer won after about his fifth DDT on
Raven. After that match, the lights went out, and Rob Van Dam, Sabu,
and Jerry Lawler each appeared in the ring. Together, the trio laid
out just about all the top ECW stars, including the Sandman and the
Gangstas. Finally, the three left once Taz hit the ring.
Taz in the ring provided the perfect segue into the next match, which
was a rematch with Sabu. To be honest, I thought this match was even
better than their Barely Legal match, as Sabu did a lot more
high-flying. The end came when Taz locked on the Tazmission... but
Sabu was able to angle backward to pin Taz's shoulders to the mat.
Despite being in the chokehold, Sabu became the first man to defeat
Taz in almost two years.
After a verbal confrontation with Shane Douglas, Taz promised to leave
ECW for 45 days if he could not choke out Douglas and take his ECW TV
title in under 3 minutes. So sure enough, two and a half minutes into
an impromptu match, Taz was able to choke out Douglas to become the
new ECW TV Champion.
Doing a quick mental search, I am unable to come up with a single more
exciting, action-packed hour of wrestling on free/cable TV all year...
* Fall-out from the Great American Bash: first off, Scoops is reporting
that DDP was injured in the main event, and had to be taken to the
hospital after the match. And secondly, if you're keeping track of
PredCon (my PPV predicting grudge match against Sean Shannon), then I
must humbly report that I got my lunch handed to me, as I guess only 4
of 9 matches correctly on the GAB PPV; Sean picked 7. Be sure to check
out PredCon and the rest of Sean's page.
* The Wrestling Lariat is reporting that it's a done deal that WWF RAW
will be moving to a 9-11 pm (eastern) timeslot, while retaining the
live, two-hour format. The first day of the new timeslot will be
August 4, when the Lariat reports that RAW will be live from Atlantic
City, NJ.
This is only the NFD Weekly Edition. Check here every Monday for the
in-depth looks at all the news, as well as for the exclusive Web Home of
the Alex Marvez Column. At other times during the week, be sure to check
out The NFD Updates for quick recaps of breaking stories!
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The News From Dayton is Copyright 1995, 1997 by Rick Scaia.
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--
Rick Scaia | VISIT ME ON THE WEB
A Loathesome, Offensive Brute | http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~ag725/
ag725@freenet.carleton.ca | http://homepages.udayton.edu/~scaiarij/
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